This week I worked with Hojun to construct a box for our robot’s storage container. After iterating through the box design process, we ended up with an interlocking rectangular tab design which allows for ample area of contact when adhering the sides of the box together. Hojun and I also made progress on determining the configuration of the robot’s layout.
I learned more about the tradeoffs of different types of path planning algorithms such as A*, D*, RRT, and Djikstra’s. For the MVP, I plan to have the robot move along a wall and then perform an inward radial path until all the tools are located. Once all the tools have been found, the robot will move to each tool in accordance to Dijkstra’s algorithm. In the future, I hope to do future searches of the room based on tool frequency location and spread as suggested by Abha. I also began learning more about Gazebo and what it takes to import CAD models into the simulator. However, there are some confusions with soldiworks limiting us from having the process of converting an stl file into a gazebo formatted file be not so clear. I also figured out how to connect to a Linux based computer given that I have access to the IP address of the router connected to the Linux computer and the Linux computer’s IP address.
I also was able to write a lucas-kanade algorithm from scratch (this was for a homework in another class) which can let us track an arbitrary object specified by a template and find a bounding box around that object in an image. I also was able to achieve an adjustable bounding box and template which allows for better tracking than the baseline method. This will be useful for visualization and tracking of objects.
Being that I am in a different state, debugging the robot code will be more tricky. There are sure to be translational issue when porting my code to the jetson and this debugging process is especially problematic when considering I have move to another state. However, Hojun will be helping connect to his router which is connected to the jetson, so that I can better assists in integration and debugging.